Skip to main content

News

  • Welcome to DeepThought!  Make yourself at home!

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - oblivion

1
General Discussion / Re: Fodder
Victorian American  Burlesque Theatre, 1890s  http://mashable.com/2014/11/11/victorian-burlesque-dancers/#pMysUz6mEkqL
3
General Discussion / NaNoWriMo 2016
It's 4 days away.  I'm ready!
4
General Discussion / Re: Fodder
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/heres-how-nasa-thinks-society-will-collapse/441375/

NASA's take on how this society could collapse.  Some good dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic settings in this.
5
General Discussion / Re: Fodder
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/british-library-puts-1000000-images-into-public-domain.html

Quote
Earlier this week, Oxford's Bodleian Library announced that it had digitized a 550 year old copy of the Gutenberg Bible along with a number of other ancient bibles, some of them quite beautiful. Not to be outdone, the British Library came out with its own announcement on Thursday:

We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.
7
General Discussion / Re: Fodder
Another interesting article regarding prosthetics.  This one pushes the utility envelope.

http://www.boredpanda.com/prosthetic-arm-tattoo-artist-jc-sheitan-tenet-jl-gonzal/
8
Whoa, what happened there?

Our web host is what happened.  Someday I'll be able to talk about it without needing to gruesomely murder someone.
9
I'm sorry guys :(

I'm pretty much 100% consumed with TR Megadeath.  I don't know when that will change, but I expect the next few weeks to be ridiculous.
10
I rein the horse onto the road.  We head NorthEast.  Is it only my imagination, or does the wind already blow cold?  "We're overtaking winter, friend", I tell the horse.  His ears flick back in silent agreement.
11
What is a skill challenge?

eta from here: http://dungeonsmaster.com/skill-challenges/

It's a situation where I'd have to every skill my character has to get through it?
12
The road to Irontown is well marked, and well maintained.  It looks like I'll make good time.  I pause and study the road and surroundings.

[perception: 14+7 = 21
Insight: 13+9 = 22]
13
D&D / Re: A House of Wax Campaign Sign Up
Maybe in.
14
General Discussion / The Phantom Time Hypothesis
I never heard of this hypothesis before today.  https://curiosity.com/memes/phantom-time-hypothesis-believers-think-were-in-the-18th-century-curiosity/

Why 614-911, specifically, I wonder,  The Carolingian era wiped out, just like that.  No Roland.  No Charlemagne.  No Pope Joan.  No King Offa.  No Emperor Justinian.

Why couldn't it be the years spanning the 1st through 4th Crusades?
15
I settle with the inkeeper, pleased that he doesn't deplete my coin as he would have this time yesterday.  The livery boy, no doubt a young relative of his, hurries off to saddle my horse.  My saddlebags bulge with iron spikes and other equipment that may come handy for delving about in the mountains.  The weight may come as a surprise to him, but my sturdy mount will do fine.

I didn't expect to find Rose again among the Inn's patrons.  Whether she is still abed or already departed, she's nowhere in sight.  After a breakfast of groats and eggs, I'm off.  Based on what I gleaned from my notes, I can take a leisurely pace.  The party of soldiers is as likely to overtake me as I am to catch up with them.
16
I sigh, feeling that  Rose has gotten the better of me.  The stew is filling but I'm quite hungry now that there's food in front of me.  I chase every drop of the thick broth with still-warm and wheaty bread.  Before long I head upstairs to the room I've hired for the night.  Tomorrow I'll worry about how to find a party of soldiers wandering around the countryside somewhere between here and Irontown.

I fall asleep reading the portfolio.
17
The little earring frightens me a little.  Of course, it's obvious Rose belongs to a well-financed organization, with members in unexpected places.  And now, I'm apparently part of it, for good or ill.

A red flower, what does it mean?  What organization (or cult) uses this symbol? 

"Is this safe to wear as an every day bauble?" I ask Rose.

[history check 1d20 +10 = 11+10 = 21
Insight check 1d20 + 9 = 3+9 = 12
diplomacy check 1d20 + 12 = 4+12 = 16
perception check 1d20+7 = 4 + 7 = 11

sigh]
18
I shrug at the comment about my rank and reach for the portfolio.  "Not cut out for the military, but it's...inescapable.  For now."

Flipping through the maps, I ask, "Where do I meet the party?"

"To the best of our knowledge they only recently left or are leaving Fort Deepdark. There are only so many places one can safely cross the lightning rail tracks with beasts of burden.  I expect they'll be making for one of these bridges - most likely this one - " she taps the map - "Unless they plan to go to Irontown first.  Were it me, I would start by attempting to intercept them at a crossing or en route to Irontown, and if unsuccessful, pursue them toward their resupply point in Lakeside."

"Well then, it sounds like I can get a good night's sleep before heading out to seek the party.  Will you join me for a trencher and another Bloody Maril?"  I wave to the serving girl, who wends her way in our direction through the tables and benches.

I have little hope another drink will loosen "Rose's" tongue but I'm hungry.  And by damn, it's in her best interest to brief me thoroughly.
19
I shrug at the comment about my rank and reach for the portfolio.  "Not cut out for the military, but it's...inescapable.  For now."

Flipping through the maps, I ask, "Where do I meet the party?"
21
The lady acquiesced so easily, I wonder if I've been played.  Played again, I remind myself wryly.  It's too late to wrest more coin, no doubt.

"Skeleton Hand.  Scepter of Shadows."  Titles like these might be bestowed on dozens of artifacts on any hillside or under the rubble of any ruin.

I wrack my memory, trying to bring some focus to elusive rumors I dimly recall.

[history 1d20+10 = 20+10 = 30]

[Noice.]

As a student of history, you are more aware than the average Karrn of how tenuous the Karrnathi position was before the undead armies were first raised.  But every Karrn, indeed any adult in the Five Nations, knows the bare bones of the story:  Karrnath, strong in martial prowess and bravery, with all citizenry on war footing, fighting fiercely but still being gnawed away by famine, beset on all sides by well-fed armies of populous nations, civilians and soldiers alike falling rapidly to disease, hunger, and enemy weapons.  And then, a brilliant masterstroke:  turning this weakness into an indomitable strength - armies of soldiers who that don't need food, that don't feel pain, whose number swell ever greater with every living person who falls. 

This is true enough, if coated now in a layer of mythologizing and oversimplification, but you know that in the early days, the art and science of necromancy was not the clean, regimented thing the Karrnathi military practices today, taught in academies, regulated by law.  It was a few naturally talented individuals and taboo breakers driving the endeavor, and more often than not, they seized upon whatever fell magics and powers they could, by whatever foul means required.  Wasn't the Skeleton Hand the name of the legendary weapon of some warlord of that period? 

You're uncertain - this recollection has a few holes in it, not the least of which is that Rose speaks as though this were an artifact from some bygone era, not the last century, and the fact that the name Skeleton Hand is the kind of grim bravado a Karrnathi warlord might come up with of from his own imagination, no connection necessarily needed to this particular object.  But it might be a place to begin research, at least.  Should you find somewhere one could conduct such research.

An antiquity that might date back to the very dawn of the Dead.  Even if I could pass up the coin, what could be learned from such an artifact?

I squelch rising excitement about the job, but I'm hooked like a river fish.  I shrug  "I'll do it."
22
The lady acquiesced so easily, I wonder if I've been played.  Played again, I remind myself wryly.  It's too late to wrest more coin, no doubt.

"Skeleton Hand.  Scepter of Shadows."  Titles like these might be bestowed on dozens of artifacts on any hillside or under the rubble of any ruin.

I wrack my memory, trying to bring some focus to elusive rumors I dimly recall.

[history 1d20+10 = 20+10 = 30]
23
My pulse quickens a little as I contemplate 2000 galifars, but I try to look unimpressed. In my misspent youth, I'd not have blinked at losing so much on a throw at the table.  These days, though, t'would put me well on my way to reconciliation if I chose, or to whatever future I might desire.

"And the hazard bonus?"
24
I sigh and lean back against the wall behind my bench.  I see an opportunity, perhaps, to turn a handier profit than I'd hoped.

"Necromantic.  I wasn't told this job would involve undead sorcery.  Ancient undead sorcery, no doubt.  Nasty business.  And costly.

"If there's any more information, any at all, you could share, it might be key in helping me accomplish your goals."

[Dipolmacy:  1d20 +12 = 8+12=20]
25
I study the lady quizzically, wondering if she's to be trusted, and what her true purpose is, and for that matter, what group or person she represents.  "May I know your name? And what can you tell me about this artifact?  Where do you think it is?  Do these soldiers know their business?"

[Insight 1d20+9 = 12+9 = 21
perception 1d20+7 = 13+7 = 20]